Kristi Noem won’t say if she would withhold disaster aid if Trump asks: ‘Leadership has consequences’
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Trump’s nominee for massive cabinet job rebuffs ‘hypothetical’ question as he threatens California fire relief. Donald Trump’s nominee for Homeland Security would not explicitly commit to refusing his “hypothetical” command to withhold disaster aid when pressed during her Senate confirmation hearing on Friday.
![[Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal pressed Trump’s Homeland Security nominee Kristi Noem on whether she would ‘stand up’ to the president-elect over disaster relief]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/17/16/9c73477241d44d38b77d64253f382505.jpg)
If confirmed, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem will lead the third-largest cabinet-level department, which includes immigration authorities and emergency response agencies like FEMA. “The specter is there of potential discrimination based on politics withholding money from California or other states. It’s not an unfounded fear,” Blumenthal said. “I assume you will agree with me that withholding disaster relief, by President Trump or any other chief executive of the United States, is a violation of his duty and of law.”.
“Well, senator, leadership has consequences,” Noem replied. Blumenthal cut her off. “I want to ask you: yes or no, with all due respect,” he said. “What’s happening in California is the ramifications of many decisions over many years,” she continued. “But under my leadership at the Department of Homeland Security, there will be no political bias to how disaster relief is delivered.”.
Pressing again, Blumenthal asked: “If President Trump were to say to you, ‘we’re going to withhold money from Connecticut or Michigan or any of the states, Iowa, because we don’t like the governor or we don’t like the politics of the state,’ you would stand up to him and say, ‘Mr. President, we need to allocate that money’?”.
